Customs deploys armed personnel to tackle smuggling

chika ebuzor

January 21, 2017 4:22 PM

According to the customs comptroller, the support of border communities would lead to more successes in ending smuggling.

Comptroller-General of Nigeria Customs Service, Hammed Ali, addressing the agency's personnel.

The Nigeria Custom Service has drafted armed personnel to prevent the smuggling of imported vehicles through land borders in Kwara, the Area Comptroller, Alhaji Garba Kabiru, has said.

Kabiru, who is in charge of Niger, Kogi and Kwara State Command, said customs personnel had been mobilised to prevent smuggling of vehicles and other goods into the cuntry.

“We have since issued effective operational order to our officers in the border areas on how to prevent the illegal business and deal with smugglers,” he said in an interview with News Agency of Nigeria ( NAN) in Minna.

“We have blocked all their identified exists through our border areas in Kwara as well as those coming on transit from other states.

“We have partnered with traditional rulers especially those around border communities to alert us on the movement of smugglers.”

The customs comptroller believed that the support of border communities would lead to more successes in ending smuggling across the nation’s borders.

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Kabiru, therefore, appealed to residents of such communities to offer intelligence reports on the movement of smugglers to help save Nigeria’s economy.

chika ebuzor